But Mark Mikenas says he’s suffered the effects of two hurricanes in the last few months.

Mikenas, the executive director of the Kewanee Chamber of Commerce, said Hurricane Sandy has delayed setting up the community Christmas tree in downtown Kewanee.

He said he has a tree lined up. Todd and Laurie Steger donated a suitable tree from their yard.

But putting up the tree in the middle of the Second and Tremont streets intersection, and attaching cables to it so it doesn’t fall over, and running electric power to the tree’s lights, add up to a major undertaking that couldn’t be done without the help of crews from Ameren Illinois.

Those crews aren’t available right now, Mikenas said, because they were sent east to help repair the damage to power lines and poles caused by Sandy.

The electric company has been making do with a skeleton crew in Illinois.

Mikenas said Wednesday he talked with the men on one of the crews, which was in Pennsylvania, on its way back to Illinois.

When they get back, he said, they’ll spend several days catching up on their work here. So it probably won’t be until the last week of November that they can get around to putting up Kewanee’s tree.

Mikenas said the tree won’t be up by Thanksgiving, but it should be in place before the lighted Christmas parade and the lighting of the Christmas lights in Windmont Park on Dec. 2.

The delay with the Christmas tree follows by a few months the canceling of the Hog Days parade for the first time in anyone’s memory.

That was done because of a steady rainstorm which was part of a weather system associated with Hurricane Isaac.

“Two hurricanes in the same year, and we get affected by both of them,” Mikenas said.